Key Supreme Court Cases

Marbury v Madison (1803)- judicial review officially established (Supreme Court’s power to declare laws unconstitutional).

McCulloch v Maryland (1819) - elastic and supremacy clause allows the Federal Government to establish a bank and that states cannot tax because the power to tax is the power to destroy

Gibbons v Ogden (1824)- commerce clause allows Federal Govt Gibbons v Ogden (1824)- commerce clause allows Federal Govt. to regulate trade amongst states also Federal Supremacy of national law over state

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) Was an African-American slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom. United States Supreme Court ruled against Scott, finding that neither he, nor any person of African ancestry, could claim citizenship in the United States. The post-Civil war Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were created explicitly to counter aspects of this decision.

Plessy v Ferguson (1896)- ‘separate but equal’ doctrine established

Gitlow v New York (1929)- 1st Amendment ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had extended the reach of certain provisions of the First Amendment—specifically the provisions protecting freedom of speech and freedom of the press—to the governments of the individual states. New York law found Gitlow guilty of sedition (trying to overthrow the govt.) for handing out revolutionary socialist pamphlets Supreme Court relied on the "due process clause" of the 14th Amendment prohibits any state from depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

Brown v Board of Education (1954)- decided that separate was NOT equal

Mapp v Ohio (1961)- Creating the rule that all illegally obtained evidence will be excluded (exclusionary rule) from state and federal trials (due process rights extended by 14th Amendment)

Baker v Carr (1962)- malapportionment violates equal protection clause

Miranda v Arizona (1966)- Was a confession an admissible document in a court of law if it was obtained without warnings against self-incrimination and without legal counsel—rights guaranteed to all persons by the 5th and 6th amendments? NO “You have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you…”

Tinker v Des Moines (1969)- 1st Amendment right to symbolic speech- wearing black armbands to school in protest of Vietnam war.

Lemon v Kurtzman (1971)- 1st Amendment Separation of Church and State issue- legal question “can Federal Government give money to parochial (religious/private) schools?”

Roe v Wade (1973)- abortion constitutionally protected by ‘right to privacy’ implied in bill of rights

Eg. Florida Governor Rick Scott spent $73 million on his own campaign Buckley v Valeo (1976)- 1st Amendment right (freedom of speech) to spend as much of your own $$$ on your own campaign. Eg. Florida Governor Rick Scott spent $73 million on his own campaign

California v Bakke (1976)- violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amend

Texas v Johnson (1989)- 1st Amendment freedom of Speech (symbolic)

14th Amendment Incorporates Bill of Rights to states case by case

Path of Case appealed up to the Supreme court